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Dewey Decimal Project: 270.1 DAM When the Church Was Young

After reading, The Gospel of the Lord, I was really curious to read more of the church fathers and eagerly awaited my arrival at this part of the Dewey Decimal system. Of course, dealing with the vagaries of selecting books from the local public library, my choices aren’t always as broad as I would like, so rather than having the option of primary sources to read—aside from St Augustine, with whom I already have at least a passing familiarity, I instead got this book which is mostly summary and occasional quotation.

D’Ambrosio is writing from the perspective of someone deeply imbued with the spirit of a Catholic apologist. With each Catholic father who’s included in here, some aspect of contemporary Catholic doctrine is justified as originating from the earliest days of the Church. While as a Catholic, I’m inclined to agree, the manner in which D’Ambrosio approaches his task felt rather offputting.

Even so, within the limits of what it was, I found this an enjoyable read and saw it also potentially a good source for figuring uot which of the fathers would be of interest to start with,